The Washington Times is enhancing its lineup of products to offer readers more ways to access the news, including a new electronic edition that will allow readers worldwide to subscribe and a new Sunday edition designed to showcase the newspaper’s exclusive enterprise reporting, its opinion and commentary, and its distinctive coverage of politics, national security, family, faith and culture.
The changes, expected in early June, will follow the widely anticipated debut of The Times’ new Web site planned for next week.
“Our news is going to be more personal, more immediate and absolutely 24/7. That’s a given. Our traditional print edition and new line of digital products will put us on your doorstep, on your cell phone and on your computer screen. For the first time, readers can pick and choose what news they want and interact with us wherever they are,” said Thomas P. McDevitt, president of The Times.
Starting June 2, home-delivery subscribers will get a print newspaper delivered to their residences six days a week, Sunday through Friday, as well as the newspaper’s new electronic edition delivered to their e-mail inboxes seven days a week.
On Saturdays, The Times will no longer deliver a print edition to homes and businesses, but subscribers will be able to stay connected to the news through the electronic edition of the Saturday paper. The e-edition is a replica of the print newspaper and will have the latest news, sports scores and opinion that readers have come to expect in the print edition.
“New technology is delivering some old-fashioned service. Times readers will still have a newspaper to read seven days a week by going virtual on Saturdays, with a little extra ’green’ benefit. It’s both streamlined and environmentally friendly. Fewer delivery trucks, less newsprint to recycle — but no reduction of news. The Saturday virtual edition will be as robust as our print daily, brimming with up-to-date breaking news, sports and commentary,” Mr. McDevitt said.
Current home subscribers can sign up now by registering their e-mail addresses at www.washingtontimes.com/signup to ensure they get a virtual edition of the paper on Saturdays and an e-edition every day. The first virtual Saturday edition will be delivered electronically on June 7.
The e-edition also means Times readers across the country and around the globe can get the paper delivered to their computers. It’s an electronic replica of the print edition that is delivered to residences in the Washington metropolitan area but adds several digital features, such as the ability to search the paper for specific news, navigate pages using Web-like hyperlinks and e-mail favorite stories to friends and family.
A subscription to the e-edition costs $39.95 a year. Starting June 2, readers who are not print-edition subscribers can sign up for the e-edition at www.washingtontimes.com.
One of the most exciting changes on the horizon is a redesign of The Times’ Sunday edition, starting June 8. The Sunday edition now will feature a magazine-style front section with a 36-page package of content.
Each Sunday edition will feature a powerful expose on its cover, six pages of family and faith coverage, more than a dozen pages of reviews and features on books, country and pop music, arts and culture, a new contextual daybook offering analysis of the biggest news events upcoming each week, and a new commentary section called “Solutions” that solicits ideas from the greatest minds on the conservative and liberal sides of the debate on how best to solve the nation’s problems.
The Sunday edition will feature several other new sections, such as a two-page spread from GolfStyles magazine with reviews on the nation’s hottest golf courses and interviews and tips from golf pros.
A new family-friendly “Generations” section asks three generations of a family to weigh in on an important subject of the day. If you would like your family to be showcased in Generations, you can sign up by sending an e-mail to generations@washingtontimes.com.
There will also be an advice column for military families called “Dear Ms. Vicki” and regular personality profiles from the worlds of politics, national security and culture.
Inside the Sunday paper, readers will discover four traditional broadsheet sections with the weekend’s latest news, sports, arts and classifieds. Rounding out the package will be our weekly TV guide and several insert publications, such as the popular USA Weekend and Relish.
“Our Sunday offering will be thicker, deeper and more enterprising than anything we’ve offered before,” said Times Executive Editor John Solomon. “We hope new readers will pick it up because they’ll be able to get news, analysis, commentary and other information that is important to their families and not available anywhere else. And when they are done reading, they’ll be better armed to engage in the political, social and economic debates of our times.
“Our research indicates that people want to spend more time with the Sunday paper, and we’re giving them a great reason to spend it with The Washington Times,” Mr. Solomon said.
The Monday-through-Friday editions of the paper will also get a face-lift, with a new A-section design that better showcases the newspaper’s coverage of politics, national security and culture issues, and a new B-section called “Plugged In” that provides readers deeper insight on one news topic each day.
The eight-page Plugged In section will showcase business, the economy and personal finance on Mondays; politics, Congress and the executive branch on Tuesdays; lifestyle, family and culture on Wednesdays; national security, intelligence and the military on Thursdays; and arts and entertainment on Fridays.
“We at The Times have had a long history of covering the news in an enterprising way, and we believe the new Plugged In section extends that rich tradition. We hope it will become a must-read in the nation’s capital and across the country,” Mr. Solomon said.
“It will be a showcase of our reporters’ distinctive coverage of the news that matters most in America’s homes, on the war fronts and inside the halls of power.”
With the new design, daily readers will find their metro coverage and business news coverage in the A-section of the paper. Plugged In, sports and classifieds will round out the four sections of the paper.
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